Interview with Kerry Dwyer

Please help me welcome author Kerry Dwyer to the blog. Kerry's here to talk about her book, RAMBLINGS IN IRELAND.

Welcome, Kerry. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I live in south west France with my husband and daughter, My husband is French. We live in the countryside surrounded by vineyards and sunflower fields. There is a small general grocers, a tobacconist and a bakery near my home. My daughter has just started boarding at her school during the week. She leaves on Monday mornings and comes home on Friday nights. I miss her although I am getting used to it. I work teaching English as a foreign language to adults. I like the job. I wish I was as good at correcting my own written English as I am at correcting other people's. Every day, if it is not raining heavily, I take a walk around the block (about 4 kilometres to see how the vines sunflowers and other crops are doing. At weekends I like to walk near the estuary or further afield I write about my walk on a blog for English ex-pats. For entertainment I regularly go to a Jazz club. I write about that on my own blog.

How long have you been writing?

I won a poetry competition when I was seven or eight, It was a poem about my cat called Mr Humphrey. I haven't been writing consistently since then but I have always done some. Most of it has been for my own pleasure. I have written short stories, flash fiction as well as technical documents for my work.

Tell us about RAMBLINGS IN IRELAND. What’s the story about?

Ramblings In Ireland is not a guide book. You will not read about the fauna and flora of Ireland or find maps of trails in this book. The book follows one particular journey. It is our journey through the West of Ireland and to a closer understanding of each other. The walking trails form the thread on which I hang memories of the far and recent past along with my obsessions and quirks. There is plenty of description of the wonderful Irish countryside, the people we met, pubs we went to. Guinness we drank. but also ramblings about the conversations we had and the cultural differences we experienced.

How did the idea of the story come to you?

When Bertrand and I were on our holiday we talked of doing a scrapbook or a diary of our holiday. We took lots of pictures and I started to think about what I would write. As ever I was distracted in my thoughts and went of at tangents. The book started out to be the diary or travelogue of that holiday. It evolved to include ramblings about all sorts of other things.

Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

I belong to a small critique group and I have other beta readers. They do not edit or proofread. They look at the story and tell me how it hangs together, what would make it better whether the characters still sound like me, etc. For proofreading and editing I would always recommend a professional. I used Joel Canfield of Someday Box.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I have a very sketchy outline before I start so I guess that makes me mostly a panster.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

Sitting down and doing it. I am very easily distracted. I am much better at writing when there is no one in the house and I have no distractions. If I have something else to do I need to do that first otherwise the though that it needs doing distracts me.
The other thing I find really difficult is to let a chapter go. I keep going back and rewriting early parts before I have finished the story.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

Nothing really. I can write on a train as easily as at home. I need my PC or my laptop, whichever I am writing on and my glasses. I don't have a lucky mascot or require cups of coffee. I do like to be able to get up and pace about. If I am writing at home I have a flip chart that I can draw on or make notes on if I want to.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Chocolate resistance, on second thoughts no too far fetched ! Let's go for Shapeshifter,

LOL, love it! What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

You know in your blog statistics you can look at what search terms people use to get to your page ? Well I often try googling those to see what they were actually looking for, The most recent of those was '1400's sluts' I found nothing and I didn't find myself. I wonder if they were looking for the year or the number or something entirely different. I google strange things for research as well like 'how do I kill someone with a car?' I do like the silly things that google does with its search pages like when you key in the word 'askew' and the search comes up askew, Or 'Where is Chuck Norris ? '- Go on try it! I know! It takes very little to keep me amused.


Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: photographer, incandescent, cramps.

Poison wiped her tears and swatted away the photographer with his incandescent ceaseless flashes, Lux was dead, now what would become of The Cramps ?

Finish this sentence: If I'm not writing, I'm probably ...

If I'm not writing I'm probably out walking,

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

This list is very long, and I would be very afraid to leave anyone out. My principle supporters are my husband and daughter my parents and the rest of my family (global). My friends in my critique and beta reading groups. All the wonderful bloggers who agree to support authors by hosting interviews, spotlights and reviews. Joel Canfield who helped knock the story into shape and has been there for me from the beginning for technical and confidence support. Paulette Mahurin who I have become very close to since meeting her through our writing and all the people who follow me on twitter, facebook and wordpress particularly those who help me to spread the word be RT'ing and posting. I have been amazed at the support of my facebook friends Iveta and Valarie deserve special mentions for their support. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone.

And finally, where can people find you and your book online?

On my blog http://kerrydwyer.com/
Amazon,com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008XJU98I?tag=kerdwy-20&creative=384349&linkCode=kin
Amazon,co,uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008XJU98I?tag=kerdwy-20&creative=384349&linkCode=kin